A housewife whose car broke down near Wimbledon Park on a Sunday afternoon was shocked to discover her vehicle had been smashed up the following morning.

Josephine Devenport, 46, pulled over on Durnsford Road at 3.15pm on January 19 to take a phone call when her engine cut out.

Mrs Devenport said: "My husband came and tried to jump-start the engine, but no luck.

"There were no road markings so I decided to leave it overnight. I live in Carshalton and my husband works in Putney, so I asked him to go and check on it on his way to work.

"He drove past and called me and said I won't believe it, the car's a write-off, someone has smashed the whole back of the car.

After questioning neighbours, the couple believe the damage must have been inflicted in the early hours of Monday.

The damage was inflicted in the early hours of Monday morning on the quiet road with an industrial estate on the left and houses on the right.

Mrs Devenport said: "One guy thought he heard something between the hours of 2am and 4am on the Monday morning, and other neighbours said the car had been fine at midnight, so God only knows.

"When we discovered what had happened to the car on Monday morning my husband put a message requesting whether anybody had seen the accident under the wiper blades and by the time he came past in the evening somebody had removed this message.

"We did not receive any phone calls and the next day we taped messages on the inside of the vehicle so these could not be removed.

"But, did the person who removed the first message have something to do with it and they didn't want anyone to contact us?"

Such is the damage they have decided to write off the vehicle as an insurance claim would increase their premium.